Critical Issue #5

Research and ScholarshipHow do we impact academic pharmacy’s ability to strengthen research and other scholarship in practice, education and the pharmaceutical, administrative, translational and clinical sciences?

2012 Robert K. Chalmers Distinguished Pharmacy Educator Award

Jean M. Nappi, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcome Sciences at South Carolina College of Pharmacy, was honored for excellence in teaching, research and scholarship, as well as overall impact on pharmacy education and the profession.

2012 Paul R. Dawson Biotechnology Award

Tejal Desai, Ph.D., Professor of Biosystem Design, Department of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, was recognized as a leader in the contemporary teaching of and scholarship in biotechnology.

2012 Volwiler Research Achievement Award

Gene D. Morse, Pharm.D., Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Medicine and Pediatrics at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, was recognized for outstanding research and contributions to the field of pharmaceutical sciences.

2012 Rufus A. Lyman Award

The following awardees were recognized for the best paper published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, "Cross-Validation of an Instrument for Measuring Professionalism Behaviors" (Volume 75, Issue 9, 2011).

Katherine A. Kelley, Ph.D., Assistant Dean for Assessment & Accreditation, Pharmacy Practice and Administration, The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy

Luke D. Stanke, B.S., Assessment Coordinator, Office of Assessment, University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy

Suzanne M. Rabi, Pharm.D., Assistant Dean, Office of Academic Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy

Sarah E. Kuba, Ph.D., Director of Assessment/Associate Student Services, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy

Academic Research Fellows Program

AACP is pleased to announce a new leadership development initiative, the Academic Research Fellows Program. ARFP is a year-long program to expand the leadership capabilities of established faculty research scientists and administrators and cultivate collaborative team research and graduate education across institutions. Participants will gain experience in developing innovative research strategies to secure funding from federal and other public and private sources. Participants will also gain insight into the dynamics, management, institutional structures and policies that affect research teams. In addition to sessions in residence, fellows will participate in a collaborative group project.

New Investigator Awards Program

The New Investigator Awards Program, formerly named New Investigators Program for Pharmacy Faculty and supported in collaboration with the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education since 1986, has been fully funded by AACP since 2010. This program provides start-up grants for new pharmacy faculty-initiated research projects. During the 2012-13 academic year, 122 applications were received for peer review by expert panels assembled from each of AACP’s governance sections. All applications were reviewed, and each award was based on scientific merit. At the conclusion of the review process, each applicant received the reviewers’ comments.

Seventeen awards were conferred, each up to $10,000 plus a $1,000 travel allowance for the new investigators to attend the 2014 AACP Annual Meeting and present their research findings.

2012 Faculty Research Grant Data Report

Since 1998, AACP has annually collected and reported out information on faculty principal investigator (PI) research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health. Now the AACP report on faculty research grant data is available as an online directory for members to view, select parameters for data comparison, and generate a customized report. Members are also able to search and view details of individual federally funded grants through the Federal Grants Search site. For fiscal year 2012, the overall extramural research grant support received by colleges and schools of pharmacy is shown in the table below. In this table, in addition to the NIH, other federal, and non-federal research grants, collaborative research grants from these sources are included.

Funding Source Categories

FY2012

National Institutes of Health

$327.02 million

Other-Federal

$38.24 million

Non-Federal

$50.84 million

All Extramural Grant Total

$416.10 million

Number of Funded Schools

86

Number of Schools Received NIH Support

79

Faculty Research Grant Opportunities

AACP has launched a Web-based resource site providing links to major federal and non-federal agencies. Faculty research investigators can directly search for current research funding opportunities.In addition, AACP staff will regularly search for and list other funding opportunities that are pharmacy-relevant but may not be widely distributed. Faculty members are encouraged to visit this site frequently.

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

Last year, 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts were published in 10 issues of volume 76 of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, including a theme issue on experiential education. Viewpoints, letters, addresses, reports, book reviews and other material (see Table 1) also were published. The Journal received 391 manuscripts, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. Of these, 42 percent were accepted for publication. Approximately 450 individuals served as manuscript and book reviewers in 2012.

Three new Editorial Board members were appointed in 2012 for three-year terms: Patrick Hardigan (Nova Southeastern University), Terri Poirier (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) and Julie Szilagyi (University of Houston). Zubin Austin (University of Toronto), Sudip Das (Butler University), Gary DeLander (Oregon State University), JoLaine Draugalis (The University of Oklahoma), Harold Kirschenbaum (Long Island University) and Frank Romanelli (University of Kentucky) were reappointed to the Board for a three-year term.

Each year the best paper published in the Journal is recognized with the Rufus A. Lyman Award. The winner is selected based on utility and significance to pharmacy education, originality, research methodology and writing style. The Lyman Award Committee, which is appointed by the AACP President and chaired by the Journal Editor, selects the top paper. From volume 75, 29 papers were nominated for the Lyman Award, and the winning article was “Cross-Validation of an Instrument for Measuring Professionalism Behaviors,” by Katherine A. Kelley, Luke D. Stanke, Suzanne M. Rabi, Sarah E. Kuba and Kristin K. Janke. The authors are from The Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.